When the family found out that I was pregnant, we were offered this beautiful heirloom cradle from M's sister. I was hesitant to take it because I hadn't even thought about whether or not we would co-sleep. Thanks to our pre-natal classes, we learned that co-sleeping prevents SIDS and makes night time feeds easier. T's been sleeping in the cradle for five months.
Once T was over the trauma of coming into this world, he rarely slept during the day and woke up often during the night. He would fall asleep in my arms and when I put him down in his cradle, his eyes would pop wide open. At night, he would wake up to every creak in the floor,
snore, and closing door. We later learned that he had infant reflux. We gave him medicine before bed so he could sleep better. It took a couple of weeks to break the 'wake-up-every-ten-minutes' habit but the medicine worked. The frequency of the night wake-ups dwindled down to once a night.
Swaddling helped, too. T was always wiggly and squirmy, even in his sleep, so we swaddled him for night time sleeps. But he is our little escape artist and even at two weeks old, he would wiggle out of the receiving blanket swaddle. So I bought a
swaddling blanket that locked him in for good. Forty dollars can buy you an extra hour or two of sleep. Well worth it for me!
The day we took him for his first immunizations, he became a completely different baby. M says that it's because he experienced something so traumatic that nothing seems bad after that. The little angel slept the whole night through. And he has every night since. Recently, he grew out of the swaddle. I put him to bed a few days ago without his swaddle, expecting him to wake up within twenty minutes. But he didn't. He slept until four a.m. I picked him up to nurse him but as soon as I picked him up, he went back to sleep so I put him back down. He woke up at seven a.m. I considered it a success.
The next few nights, I realized how big he was getting. When he started to wake up, he would kick his little feet on the wood at the end of the cradle. There was very little clearance between his head and the top of the cradle. I was forced in to making the transition from cradle to big boy crib. Ok..well..not forced. Obviously, I knew he was growing. But it was so convenient to have him next to me and I was dreading the day we moved him because it would screw up his schedule.
Last night, I plugged in a little night light, put the bumpers in the crib, hung some make-shift curtains and set up the monitors. We gave him his bath, fed him a baba, and off to dream land he went in my arms. When I put him down in the crib, he woke up. Not the wide-eyed wake up but enough that I couldn't leave him there to cry. I picked him up again and he was back to sleep within five minutes. I put him down in the crib and he stayed asleep. VERY asleep. I hesitantly left the room and silently wished him luck.
I went to bed expecting that he would be awake again in twenty minutes. I listened on the monitor and all I could hear was the hum of air conditioner. Once in a while I could hear a teeny tiny breath but I wasn't sure if that's what I was hearing. Then I started to panic.
How could I let him sleep in there alone? Why can't I hear him stirring? What if he's lying there awake and scared? I'm an awful mommy! I didn't want to check on him because we have incredibly creaky floors. It would wake him if he was sleeping. But I wanted to check to make sure he was alright. Instead, I said a little prayer for him to be sound asleep and to see his little face bright and early in the morning. I lay awake for another hour worrying.
At four a.m., I heard stirring. I jumped, literally, at the opportunity to check on him. He was wide awake and playing in his crib. Yes, playing. I took him to my bed and tried to get him back to sleep. Nope, he wasn't having that. He nursed for an hour and drifted off a few times but mostly just played with my hair. By five a.m., I gave up trying and woke up for the day.
My prayers were certainly heard, I just didn't expect the universe to think that bright and early meant before dawn. The transition was a success. He slept in his crib for five and a half hours. That's incredible for such a big change. I wish for the same tonight. Well maybe with a six a.m. wake-up call and less worrying.
